Application server systems often implement large networks of services and clients. The application server system may include applications distributed across a number of machines in the network. One common task is configuration management, i.e., the upgrading or changing of applications or configurations of the machines. For this to happen reliably in a distributed system, changes to the configuration of the machines must either succeed or fail in their entirety. This is because partial failure can leave the system in an inconsistent state.
In conventional approaches, changes must be made to the configuration on an attribute-by-attribute basis. Flowchart 100 of FIG. 1 illustrates one such process. As shown in FIG. 1, the administration server generates a change for an attribute (block 110). The administration server then transmits the change to all the managed servers to validate the change (block 120). The changed attribute is implemented and made active (block 130). If there are more attributes to change (block 140), processing continues to (block 110) where the process is repeated. Otherwise, processing of flowchart 100 completes.
However, the limitations involved with validating attribute changes individually, coupled with the fact that changing attributes often has side effects, such as triggering deployment, makes it difficult to reliably make changes using conventional means. What is needed is techniques for implementing changes in an application server architecture that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.